Sanders Addresses Health Care in Chicago Speech

Publishedon July 16, 2017

Senator Bernie Sanders addressed the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s annual convention on Saturday afternoon, and in a far-ranging speech, he went after the Trump Administration’s push to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“Thousands of Americans would unnecessarily die because of this legislation,” Sanders said. “Our job as a nation isn’t to throw 22 million people off of health insurance. Our job is to join every other industrialized nation on earth and offer health care to all people as a right, not a privilege.”

Sanders, who ran for president in 2016 and hasn’t ruled out a run in 2020, renewed his call for a single-payer healthcare system in the United States, and pointed to other countries like Ireland and Germany that have adopted such systems.

“We are the only major country on Earth that allows people to be uninsured, or to have huge deductibles and co-pays,” he said. “Brothers and sisters, let us go forward and fight for a Medicare-for-all single-payer program that guarantees healthcare to all of our people.”

Sanders also discussed income inequality, repairing what he called the “broken” campaign finance system, and about the lack of funding that public schools are receiving in the United States, which he says hurts the country in the global economy.

“If they are going to go out and get good jobs, they need to get a good education,” Sanders said. “We should not be cutting funding for places like Chicago State University. We should be making public colleges and universities tuition-free.”

Sanders was one of several prominent political figures to appear at the convention, which began earlier in the week. Senator Elizabeth Warren also addressed the convention, as did Democratic Party Chairman Tom Perez.